Merger
by The Cheshire Cheese
Summary: Combining names, combining genes, combining anxieties, and lame senses of humor. (Fluff, drabble. Warning: contains canon romances.)


**A/N:** **This is an old bit of fluff. I'm updating only because I've changed some minor details for my "Star Trek" Cheese Canon. (That's what I'm calling the continuity of my personal Trek fanfics now.)**

 **I don't own "Star Trek: Voyager."**

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When Chakotay woke he immediately turned to his wife, half-hoping to see her tossing and turning in the midst of her own anxiety dream, so he'd have an excuse to wake her up and hold her. Instead, he found Seven already wide awake and staring at the ceiling, her gold hair sprawled around her pillow. The regeneration unit fixed to the head of her side of the bed was inactive. The sight of her round stomach soothed him, reminding him that the babies weren't born yet, it had only been a dream. Her gray eyes flicked to his.

"You're awake."

Chakotay rolled over onto his side. "Was I making any noise?"

"Only your usual snoring," she replied. "Were you experiencing an unpleasant dream?"

"You could say that."

Her eyes returned to the ceiling. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

He reached over to run a hand across her belly, over their son and daughter. "Seska. I dreamed her son was mine after all. The Doctor and Kathryn came over to tell us. He was back in the Delta Quadrant, being raised as a slave for the Kazon. They had a letter from him, asking why I'd abandoned him, signed 'Kolopak.'"

Seven, of course, already knew that Chakotay had been planning to name his "son" after his own father, upon retrieving him from the Kazon, before learning that the child wasn't his after all. To finally be able to give his father's name to a son that wasn't begot by that putrid Cardassian was... quite a feeling.

Seven eyed him. "And then?"

"Then you and me were sitting at the kitchen table, debating over whether to pick a new name for our son, or politely ask 'Kolopak' to change his."

Her lips tightened as she stifled a silent giggle.

His hand moved to caress her cheek. "You wanna tell me yours?"

Her silver-webbed hand wrapped around his. "It didn't involve the Borg, for once." She rolled over onto her side to face him straight on. "I dreamed we were able to have their cybernetic implants removed at birth, by replacing them with holographic body parts."

"Like Neelix's holographic lungs?" Chakotay laughed nervously. "From the look on your face, I'm guessing something went offline?"

"Worse," she sighed, working her human eyebrow. "The babies were now half-hologram, genetically. They were... irritating me. And I," she swallowed, "deleted them." As if feeling she had to defend her actions, she added quickly, "I meant to say 'deactivate children,' but somehow 'delete' just slipped out of my..." her eyes hardened to see her husband biting his lip, holding back laughter. "There should be no humor in this narrative! I deleted our newborn son and daughter!"

"Y-you laughed at my Seska dream!" he retorted, still snickering. "I was a prisoner of war to her, remember? I was tortured."

Seven breathed deeply. "By being given a beating, which if memory serves, is your favorite hobby. I wonder how the Kazon would interrogate Mr. Paris, or Mr. Kim. Perhaps force them to watch 'the Loony Tunes' and a clarinet recital, respectively."

"They'd probably have threatened to force-feed Kathryn a pot of coffee," Chakotay chuckled.

"Indeed," Seven seemed to be calming down. "You were fortunate Seska never learned your true weakness, otherwise the Kazon would have had Voyager's command codes within moments."

"And what 'weakness' would that be?"

A split second too late he realized the answer, not fast enough to suck his stomach in from her attacking hand. Always the Borg one, she used for tickling. She knew the cold metallic fingertips doubled the effect. Doubled over in laughter, Chakotay attempted to return fire to her pregnant stomach.

"Careful," she warned, "The babies."

"It's not fair," he panted, as her hand finally withdrew. "When a woman has a huge round gut it's the miracle of life, and everyone congratulates her. When a man does it's—"

"Nature's beanbag."

"I'm going to start dieting, working out more. Get a six-pack."

"You will do no such thing."

"You say that now."

"Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Riker, none of the best male captains in Starfleet have had a 'six pack.'" In the dark, Chakotay was beaming over her mention of his recent promotion. "'Six packs' are for holo-actors staring in pleasure programs of a homo-erotic nature."

Chakotay was still trying to work out what she'd just said when she reached over to stroke his graying hair.

"I was just kidding," he said finally.

Chakotay had no delusions about actually acquiring abs anymore. The first time he'd brought the issue up, Seven, horrified at the prospect of being parted from her "favorite cushion," had frantically contacted her sister-in-law for advice. Sekaya had then sent Seven the recipe for the secret weapon that Indian women had been chasing away unwanted six-packs with for centuries: frybread. (This, Seven insisted, was the true reason behind the fattening pastry's invention. Jewish women prepared bagels with cream cheese, Klingon women blood pie, and so forth, with the same motive.)

Changing the subject, he asked her, "Any decision yet on our daughter's name?"

With their son being named for Chakotay's father, it had seemed obvious at first that the girl should be named Erin, after Seven's mother. But something had made her hesitate on that; a wish to honor both parents, somehow, as well as a sentiment that she was already honoring her side of the family with the last name the children would have (Chakotay's family didn't practice last names). The other option, at the moment, besides Erin, was Raven, after her parents' ship. The problem was that Raven was a somewhat clichéd name these days. Chakotay replayed all the different reactions they'd received from friends when they'd brought the name up.

"Raven?" Tom Paris had squinted dubiously. "Sounds like a name for some dark superhero from one of my old cartoons."

B'Elanna had then added, "I was thinking it sounded like a name for some big male villain from one of your old sci-fi serials. Like some big biker character, with hair like a Klingon."

"And a nuclear missile in his sidecar, wired to his brain to go off if he dies," Tom had added, like it was some kind of inside joke.

Sekaya had just scoffed at the suggestion. "An Indian with an English animal name, how original."

Kathryn had pursed her lips over her coffee, thinking it over. "Raven...sounds like a name for a hip teenager." She'd blinked awkwardly. "Or a psychic."

The Doctor had been the only one who really seemed to strongly support the name. "Raven! I love it! Very Edgar Allen Poe..." And that had put both Seven and Chakotay almost completely off the name.

"What's 'raven' in your language?" Seven asked, wrapping her arms around her belly.

"I've got a few languages," Chakotay reminded her. "Which one do you want? Rubber Tree, Hopi, Ojibwe, Navajo, Mayan...Spanish?"

"One of your ancestors 'got around,' as Tom would say," Seven sighed.

"Well, I guess the urge to explore in me must've come from somewhere down the family tree," he admitted.

Considering the variety of alien women he'd dated all over the galaxy, his unusually mixed heritage wasn't too far of a stretch, but he knew better than to make such a joke to his wife.

"What language is 'Kolopak?'" she asked.

"Rubber tree. Or anyway our recreation of it. No one's sure how accurately my father's tribe reconstructed that culture."

"Do you know the word for 'raven?'"

"Not offhand. I can look it up." He left the bed. "Wasn't planning on going back to sleep anytime soon anyway..."

He found it almost immediately. "Kimanay. Unisex name. Now I think of it I had a classmate named Kimanay."

"I like it," Seven said, but still sounded undecided.

Chakotay ran a hand over his mouth. "It feels like we're leaving your parents in the dark here."

"Raven in your language honors both our families," Seven said. "And they will have my surname."

Chakotay thought it over. He finally considered aloud, "Kolopak Magnus... Erin Honovi." He explained, "My mother's name was Honovi."

Seven thought it over. "Kimanay would be appropriate for the third one, when it comes."

"Let's not get carried away," Chakotay said half-jokingly, but found himself agreeing with her. He lay back on the bed, and tried the names out. "'Kol, do your homework.' 'Erin Honovi, what the hell is that on your neck?'"

"I can't wait to see them," Seven whispered.

The Doctor, who'd been instrumental in helping Seven and Chakotay conceive, had offered them the option of a holographic prediction of what the children would look like when born, but they'd declined.

"I can't decide what hair color I want them to have," Chakotay muttered.

"What difference would it make."

"If they had yours," he caressed her disheveled, sleep-knotted locks, "they'd be beautiful. But they'd have the problem my cousin Lupita has. Having to explain to everyone she meets that she actually is mixed, part-Indian, not just another wannabe pulling the 'Indian princess ancestor' card."

"And if the have your hair?"

"They'll be gorgeous. Until they turn thirty, and it grays prematurely."

"You joined the Maquis in your thirties. I'd always assumed that had affected the pigment of your follicles."

"Maybe," he sighed.

"I want them to have your eyes," Seven said.

After giving it some thought, he said, "I think black hair and blue eyes would be a good combination."

Seven rolled over. "We should cease this speculation, it will only-" she jolted and grabbed her stomach.

"Another kick?" Chakotay put his hand on her bump for a feel.

"It may have been a punch," she eyed him accusingly.

"What are you looking at me for? You're the Tsunkatse champion."

After a moment she said, "There was no champion. Kotram and I were beamed out before the match could be completed." Quietly she said, seemingly half to herself, "I hope he's found his son."

It was amazing that this was the same woman who'd once threatened Voyager with assimilation.

Leaning over his wife, Chakotay whispered, "I hope ours are as human as their mother," and kissed her before she could deny the compliment.

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 **A/N: This was actually makes me cringe a little, but I'll leave it up anyway for now.**

 **Fun fact: the Hirogen who befriends Seven in "Tsunkatse" has no name, but he was played by the actor who played General Martok on "Deep Space Nine." So I gave him the unclever name of Kotram, mostly because it would be easy to remember should I ever bring up that character again in a future story.**


End file.
